This book provides a detailed introduction to the multifaceted and evolving discipline of ecocriticism. It locates ecocriticism within the varied domains of the Romantic movement, science, ethics, feminism and urban life, while tracing the evolution of the field from the coinage of the term to its new trajectories, through its various phases or ‘waves’. The book explores important concepts such as ecofeminism and material ecocriticism and points out the ways in which this literary/cultural theory seeks to engage with ‘our troubled environmental times’.

Contents: Preface. 1. Ecocriticism: An Introduction. 2. Ecocriticism and Romanticism. 3. Science and Ecocriticism. 4. Environmental Ethics: An Overview of Foundational Texts.5. Life-Places and Ecocriticism. 6. Urban Ecocriticism. 7. Writing Back to the Centre: From Postcolonial Ecocriticism to Ecocriticism of the Global South. 8. Women Writing Nature. 9. New Trajectories. 10. Swampspeak: An Example of Ecocritical Interpretive Practice. Afterword. Glossary of Select Terms. Suggested Reading.